Amager – Hoodoo Brown

Hyman G. Neill, better known as Hoodoo Brown, hailed from a traditional Southern family in Lexington, Missouri. As a teenager Hoodoo worked as a printer’s devil on the local newspaper, until one day he jumped on a freight train going West. He drifted to the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and soon ruled the place, already notorious as the most lawless city in the West. By 1879 Hoodoo – described as a tall, thin man with light hair, a small mustache and a rakish look – was Justice of the Peace and mayor of the place. He recruited the baddest of the bad and soon commanded a formidable band of outlaws who enforced law and committed crimes as they saw fit. The group became known as the Dodge City Gang. From 1879 through 1880, Hoodoo would lead his gang in stagecoach and train robberies, murder, thievery, and municipal corruption. They decided which murders, including ones they committed, were homicide and which self-defense. Ultimately, the gang was run out of town. Hoodoo left for Houston but was arrested and jailed upon arrival for the killing of a Vegas deputy. Hoodoo hired two attorneys and was released when the Texas authorities were unable to establish charges against him. Then, mysteriously, Hoodoo Brown seems to have slipped out of recorded history. Sources indicate that Hoodoo died in Torreón, Mexico, where he left a common-law wife and a son. Two of Hoodoo’s brothers brought back his remains to the family plot in Lexington where Hoodoo Brown was buried under the name of Henry G. Neill.